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The struggle for gay rights in Iran continues

Mahdi Kazemi fighting deportation to Iran

Friday, 21 March 2008

Occasionally we need to make a noise. Life isn’t just about the party. Our lifestyle choices, the people we choose to love can seem unimportant in a society with laws to protect. Iran is different. Homosexual acts are illegal in the Islamic republic. And this barbaric attitude towards homosexuality has lead to executions of many gay men including 24-year-old Mokhtar N. and 25-year-old Ali A. in 2005. According to Human Rights Watch gay rights in Iran is deserving of our attention. “In 2005 the government of Iran reportedly executed Mokhtar N. and Ali A for the crime of "lavat." Iran’s Shari`a-based penal code defines lavat as penetrative and non-penetrative sexual acts between men. Iranian law punishes all penetrative sexual acts between adult men with the death penalty. Non-penetrative sexual acts between men are punished with lashes until the fourth offence, when they are punished with death. Sexual acts between women, which are defined differently, are punished with lashes until the fourth offence, when they are also punished with death.”

Fast forward three years and gay 19-year-old Iranian Mahdi Kazemi is fighting deportation to Iran. Thursday the 20th March saw Mahdi granted a reprieve on from deportation to Iran, where he says he could be hanged for his homosexuality. UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said, "in the light of new circumstances Mahdi Kazemi's appeal for asylum should be reconsidered”. Commenting on the news Kazemi's Dutch lawyer, Borg Palm said, "This is very positive. But reconsidered doesn't mean he'll get a permit; they could still deny what he is asking. Kazemi came to Britain to study in 2005. He later learned that his lover in Iran had been hanged after being charged and convicted of sodomy. Fearing for his life, Kazemi sought asylum in Britain, but his claim was rejected.”

Kazemi fled to the Netherlands and sought asylum there, but a Dutch court this week turned down his application, saying as he had applied in Britain he must return there to pursue his case. He is due to be deported from the Netherlands back to Britain within days. Human rights groups and gay rights advocates have rallied to Kazemi's cause, highlighting the Iranian government's track record of executing homosexuals. Commenting on the case and the Home Secretary’s decision Omar Kuddas of Gay Asylum UK said “The "new circumstances" is the campaign for Madhi but he is not safe yet. Please continue to make your feelings known as British government policy, which allows this has not changed. To say that homosexuals are safe as long as they are discreet and live their lives in private, is to say that Ann Frank was safe from the Nazis in WWII as long as she hid in her attic." Kuddas continued. “The British Government has for once done the right thing and given this young man a chance and hope for his future. For sexuality is as much a fundamental right as any other. I am grateful that Madhi can now make his case and establish the true dangers awaiting him in Iran."

Now it’s up to the UK government to decide whether Madhi will be deported. You can have your say on that decision, via petition and protest. It’s a choice you have and it’s a choice you should make.

To sign the petition sponsored by the IRQO (Iranian Queer Organization) visit www.ipetitions.com/petition/UKMADHI/
For more information on this case visit www.madhikazemi.com and for further information of other international LGBT Rights issues visit Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org/doc/?t=lgbt and www.OutRage.org.uk